What kind of house can you buy for 400,000 in your city (restaurant, beach)

[CamThomas]

Philly is a great value imo

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Das_Interwebz

Some in PHILADELPHIA that caught my eye. Did not want a row-home. Some nice double-duplex ones I saw though they call them townhomes. Still partial to singles and found this nice one. Just posted and all very nice interior also and love how the pictures of it as someone living in it had it furnished and so many plants all over. Must really have a green thumb. Has a laundry room in the basement but does not say a finished basement.

Built in 1950
3 car garage spaces 1,365 sq/ft
Selling for - $329,000

https://www.redfin.com/PA/Philadelph.../home/39306699

Street-view

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0586...8192?entry=ttu


This home caught my I as few are bungalows in Philly yet this home looks like a Midwest brick bungalow. Only one like it in the neighborhood that is not curbed making it look like in the sunbelt like Houston. It has an empty lot next to it (seems that way to me) does not say except the lot size is 100' X 130' so that sure sounds like it and says developers opportunity in description.

I cannot believe it was built in 1965? Clearly it has it twice in the listing yet it looks more like an early 20th century Midwest bungalow including Chicago. No garage but does a driveway alongside the home. Full Finished basement open and sharp Great Kitchen now cheap as home is all updated.

1,680 sq/ft but not sure if the basement is included in Philly?
Selling Price - $459,000

https://www.redfin.com/PA/Philadelph.../home/39450190

Street-view

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0411...8192?entry=ttu


Another Philly home a duplex-double home 2 connected they are calling a townhome and also semi-attached. This is a brick home though a flat roof. What caught me is how GREAT it is fully updated inside with the washer/dryer in the kitchen. It looks darn good to me.

Says Brazillian pecan floors throughout. The back opens to concrete to alleyway with a 1-car garage that is the lower-level open with the back and garage in that lower floor. Front street of the home is a busier main street as a blvd.

Built in 1963 1,780 sq/ft
Selling for - $375,000

https://www.redfin.com/PA/Philadelph.../home/39351188

Street-views

Front
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0703...8192?entry=ttu Its back alley shows the garage under the home.

Back with a alley and garage lower level of home

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0701...6656?entry=ttu

Some notes for you:

Fully detached freestanding homes are rather hard to find in Philadelphia. There was a poster here on C-D whose handle was rowhomecity, and he wasn't lying: Rowhouses make up a greater share of the housing stock in Philadelphia than in any other city in the country: somewhere north of 60% of all the single-family residences (SFRs) in the city are rowhouses.

"Townhome" is what we call a rowhouse in a fancier neighborhood (e.g., Rittenhouse Square, Society Hill). (Edited to add: Since the local MLS data entry system does not recognize "twin" or "semi-detached" as a house type, twins get entered as townhomes. No one will call them that in everyday speech. Or that may be a Redfin tic; the same house listed on Zillow is identified as a "Single Family Residence".)

The houses you call "duplex-doubles" we call "twins." These are semi-detached SFRs that share a party wall with the house next to them. These are the second-most-common type of single-family house in the city.

Freestanding singles tend to cluster in three areas of the city: Northeast Philadelphia (that brick bungalow you like is in one of those Northeast neighborhoods, Holmesburg, and that 1950 bungalow is in another, Castor Gardens), Northwest Philadelphia (especially upper Rosxborough, but they're also scattered about Germantown and Mount Airy, and they're pretty thick on the ground [and priciest] in Chestnut Hill) and Overbrook Farms in West Philadelphia. A few other neighborhoods, including East Oak Lane and Wynnefield, have some as well.

Square footage figures for Philadelphia real estate listings include the above-grade square footage only. Not even walkout basements where a sloping lot exposes one side of them count towards the total.

[Das_Interwebz]

Some very odd still interesting homes I found in Chicago that are for sale.

This is well over the $400,000 to $450,000 range by inflation since 2021. Still such a odd home that seems to have been listed last year than removed and back again with perhaps a bit too high a price?

This home was built in 1885 by the city record posted. Bridgeport is an older neighborhood south of downtown and Chinatown that was notorious in its day as a Irish area of Chicago mayors of the past. THE HARRY POTTER HOME by its exterior. Probably the oldest on the block that has varied homes from 1920s 30s Chi bungalows to its 1950s 60s varieties all on the same block. In general the neighborhood has a very old stock of homes that escaped its Great Fire that moved north and east not south.

Look of this home says it all. Odd colorful interior with a very nice finished basement with extra shiny darker wood floors also in its 2nd floor. The main floor the parkay floor most might remove.

The back is very Mediterranean in all the tile used with a roofed patio and tiled yard to garage that has both open front and alley facing garage door. Its look is not a great trait as it will have a special taste for a person unless they plan to remove its Harry Potter features.

2,418 sq/ft that seems to count the basement as it is more than 50% above ground with it dating before the city raised the streets making the first floor more a basement.
Built 1885
2-car brick garage
An open upstairs floor-plan with additional kitchen in the somewhat basement or lower level.
No Appliances are shown unusually with the home with also a nice porch in front and back patio.

SELLING for $475,000

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/34.../home/14075114

Front street-view.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8322...8192?entry=ttu

Its back alley and garage.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8323...8192?entry=ttu



This home is a "Gingerbread" home in another leafy Chicago though far southwest neighborhood known for city workers to live. More than 2 months listed.
2,100 sq/ft
Built in 1938.
No interior pictures are shown.
Attached 1-car garage.
The chimney says it got a fireplace.

SELLING for $340,000

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/10.../home/13071626

Its street-view is like a postcard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7012...8192?entry=ttu

[drro]

Originally Posted by Das_Interwebz

This home is a "Gingerbread" home in another leafy Chicago though far southwest neighborhood known for city workers to live. More than 2 months listed.
2,100 sq/ft
Built in 1938.
No interior pictures are shown.
Attached 1-car garage.
The chimney says it got a fireplace.

SELLING for $340,000

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/10.../home/13071626

Its street-view is like a postcard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7012...8192?entry=ttu

That’s a really nice house. Like a fairytale. But isn’t it located in the South Side of Chicago?

[manitopiaaa]

Originally Posted by drro

That’s a really nice house. Like a fairytale. But isn’t it located in the South Side of Chicago?

Loosely speaking, yes. But this is in Beverly, which isn't what people think of as "South Side." I think "Far Southwest" is more accurate, since this corner of Chicago doesn't have the same challenges of South Side.

Niche has Beverly as an "A" neighborhood, or the same ranking as Hyde Park or Wicker Park.

Also, that home has no interior shots and the only pic was taken with a potato. It's not going to sell for awhile for those reasons, especially since many homes in this area could have ghastly structural problems. A home with a decent interior would have shown it, so this screams red flags.

[Das_Interwebz]

Originally Posted by drro

That’s a really nice house. Like a fairytale. But isn’t it located in the South Side of Chicago?

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

Loosely speaking, yes. But this is in Beverly, which isn't what people think of as "South Side." I think "Far Southwest" is more accurate, since this corner of Chicago doesn't have the same challenges of South Side.

Niche has Beverly as an "A" neighborhood, or the same ranking as Hyde Park or Wicker Park.

Also, that home has no interior shots and the only pic was taken with a potato. It's not going to sell for awhile for those reasons, especially since many homes in this area could have ghastly structural problems. A home with a decent interior would have shown it, so this screams red flags.

I noted in my post no interior shots, but I am not with you assuming the worst. Makes little sense in assuming structural issues. Do you think the construction of the 1930s was inferior in this city? Picture taken with a potato? I posted the Google street-view and it is the same as the cover photo of the realtor and same van in its driveway.

Chicago had strict building codes with full zoning by the 1920s with zoning and for this house built in the 1930s and definitely was not built for the working-class of that depression era. Beverly seems to be a sub-neighborhood of a larger Community Area of one of the official Chicago neighborhoods of the city. Beverly was part of Chicago's 1890 absorbing of townships and early suburbs of the era especially those that developed right outside the city just before and after its Great Fire of 1871 to escape the required upgrades of newbuilts in brick. So many built just outside the city and within a decade or two got annexed anyway.

Thes tricter ordinances for fire-protection that had part of which required all new homes to be built of brick, stone and concrete and terracotta. This area would have been more sparse then. By the time this home was built in the 1930s. Chicago's strict codes would have been well into place with zoning.

The city also did not want tenements as NYC had that exposes' were showing in the era of them full of immigrants packed in sardine conditions with rooms of even no windows. Still it got its own sort of tenements mostly gone. So Chicago built differently even as rowhomes were seen as too risky for the working-class. Any water damage can deteriorate any home so always check those on Realtor sites and require inspections by your bank for loans I am sure.

The home that you are questioning is below again to look over all the info provided without interior photos.

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/10.../home/13071626

^^^I always check the SALE HISTORY of these Real Estate sites of a home as it notes the last time this home sold was in "1983". Might have a lot of retro and original looks? So I can see a nice much older couple either still living there or perhaps it is an estate or a nursing home took possession?

Perhaps someone does not want their personal belongings like antiques and artwork displayed for the world to view? I saw no sold-as-is in the listing


This next home SOLD last July another "TUDOR Gingerbread type" with its own slant on its design in Beverly. This home is fully upgraded with a full finished basement in Beverly. Also built in the 1930s looking great and what is not to like even of its unique slant on the Tudor gingerbread.

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/10.../home/13072626


The ethnicity of the Beverly neighborhood is found here and blocks with also areas near some part of the greater community area official neighborhood.

https://bestneighborhood.org/best-ne...ly-chicago-il/



Back to the "north/northwest side of Chicago"
Here there are also blocks of Tudors or they are scattered among the bungalow and mid-century varieties of homes. The sub-neighborhood of Schorsch Village has full blocks and many scattered thru it as where the next home is.


This "Tudor ginger-type" is currently for sale in the price-range of this thread. Still a lot of upgrades and plenty of green in the standard city block and city lot size.

This home has a legal 2-unit home now with an apartment upstairs with a private entrance from the back. Some original features like its doors and wood floors. The general Chicago 2-car garage from its alleyway. Also has a Mother-in-law flat or granny-flat as they are called in its fully finished basement that legally cannot be rented and just a family member room-and-board status.

Listed as a 2-4 unit home
Built in 1942
SELLING Price - $399,000

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/34.../home/13467029

Its neighboring home is also a Tudor gingerbread. Shows both homes.

https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/68/...981988_2_0.jpg

Its street-view

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9433...8192?entry=ttu

Its back alleyway and garage.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9435...8192?entry=ttu

Others dispersed thru the neighborhood. Very orderly and maintained and timeless in look.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9418...8192?entry=ttu


This odd Tudor ginger was just sold but of a higher price-point. So unique and fully upgraded with the works... a lot of white vogue today. The finished basement counted in the sq/ft as city seems to allow finished basements to be counted more and more vs needing to be at least 50% above ground only.

The usual 2-car garage with the typical Chicago city lot with their green front and small yard.

Built in 1931
Sold for - $565,000 Feb 9, 2024
2,496 sq.ft seems w/basement counted

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/60.../home/13463768


This one sold last september for $300,000 a Tudor Gingerbread. Great homes that are well-built as most in the city and stand timeless in looks in every era.

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/60.../home/13465197


This Mid-century home currently for sale is very nice. Finished basement as is common CHECK OUT THE BASEMENT open with a retro-bar still great and timeless for entertaining etc. Usual garage but home has a addition in back shrinking the yard. Still nice-size patio to garage.

Original kitchen platinum cabinets though perhaps a bit yellower from varnish and brown built-in oven. Usually this era had the pale pick appliances. Still shows how having the same kitchen had those who owned it maintained it well.

Gives no age still clearly a mid to late 1950s but could be 60s. Already saw this style still used in 1970.

1,225 sq/ft with additional 919 sq/ft finished in the basement.
SELLING Price - $349,900

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/35.../home/13468076

The street-view

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9444...8192?entry=ttu

The back alleyway and garage

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9443...6656?entry=ttu


This home again far "southwest side of the city".

Looks basic yet inside every upgrade one could want. All new concrete front and back exterior. The finished basement is very nice and lots of white. The kitchen has new-style sink on the island counter with nice wood floors with sliding patio doors to the back. SUPER NICE plenty of photos of inside and outside

Built in 1955
Listed for 2-months
SELLING Price - $419,900

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/10.../home/13159625

[NW4me]

In San Fran? I don't know... maybe a vacant lot.

[Need4Camaro]

In the suburb of Leander TX where I live, (outside of Austin TX) it basically buys you a starter home, something in the ballpark of 1,500 - 1,800 sqft.

In Austin proper, it buys you a home in the non-gentrified areas of East Austin that are sitting on a rotting foundation.. ..that or it buys you a condo in various parts of the city or a smaller 1k sqft or less home.

It's still doable to buy a home in Austin for $400k or less but it definitely won't get you players choice so to speak. Seems like the sweet spot here is between $550 - $700k

[Das_Interwebz]

Few more Chicago north/northwest sides homes. This is an old workman's cottage type built way back in 1902. It is in a gentrifying area it is slowly going into. Eclectic blocks of homes these oldest mix with 1920s 30s brick bungalows and some mid-century homes closer to the core vs others posted. Area more hispanic today as gentrification follows them a lot in this city.

Home has upgrades not too drastic as to boost cost too far and block is very nice in that city layout of front lawns and alleys with garages. Gentrification moving into this portion.

Nice new kitchen and spiral open stairway in the living room area to the upstairs. Basement half of it is finished and nearly half above-grade. These old homes are desired by young professionals as they branch out to areas still a bit cheaper.

Built in 1902
2,876 sq/ft probably with the finished basement area.
SELLING Price - 425,000

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/41.../home/13283187

Streetview is from 2022 before home got the front changed to a blue exterior. Brown yet here on right on 2022.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9035...8192?entry=ttu

Its back alleyway with garage are probably in blue now.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9039...8192?entry=ttu


A brick ranch mid-century on the northwest side on a triangular intersection of neighborhood streets.
A grassy corner lot with trees and lavender bush mentioned. Interior with updates.
The basement as usual is finished in white with white/beige w/w carpeting. Upstairs main level has hardwood floors. White updated kitchen and bathrooms.

A HUGE BACK NEW DECK seems new with Cedar privacy fence very attractive with detached 1-car garage short driveway to street shown in pictures in the for sale redfin link.

Before 2019 the home's last sale date was in 1979 for $86,500.

Brick ranch built in 1954
1,700 sq/ft I believe without the finished basement counted.
SELLING Price today - $444,000

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/58.../home/13510666

A streetview of its triangle lot and homes nearby.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9901...8192?entry=ttu



Partial to this style of mid-century home with a huge perfectly shaped blue spruce tree in its front lawn that might be perfect to get the city to remove it free for one of the city's Christmas trees. A decorative white metal fence circles its front lawn as unique in the block.

LARGE NEW DECK in back a plus with 2-levels. Finished basement with kitchen. Upstairs kitchen wood cabinets with dinette patio doors to the deck. Not an open kitchen living room though. Fully modern fancy tile bathrooms and granite/quartz sink tops. One room has a wall of solid mirrors as a closet perhaps? Nice basement laundry. Solid home for sure updated.

Built in 1970.
1,200 sq/ft without the finished basement.
SELLING Price - $419,000

url]https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3217-N-Ozark-Ave-60634/home/13541913[/url]

The streetview

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9384...8192?entry=ttu

Its back alleyway and garage.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9384...8192?entry=ttu


This one is a bit larger home on a corner Chicago lot. Raised basement so it gets counted in the sq/ft of whole home meeting criteria of 50% basement above ground. One bathroom is ORIGINAL PINK BATHROOM with tile on the wall and floor and pale-pink two sinks, toilet and tub.

The Kitchen is also updated still with its original cabinets that still look good in white with granite top and wall splash. Seems to work. The finished basement has a kitchen and Retro bar the darker panelling look of the 70s. It has a back roofed deck and yard with a 2.5-car garage entry from the side street with still alleyway in back.

Check out its one late 1950s thru early 60s Pale-pink everything bathroom as one of them in this home so well preserved 60+yrs old so well maintained. Many had this color kitchen cabinets and literally appliances were pale pink. Some had aqua baths.

* WOULD YOU KEEP IT AS IS vs REPLACE IT??

https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/68/...69454_12_0.jpg

Built in 1942
2,646 sq/ft including the basement half above grade.
SELLING Price - $449,000

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/38.../home/13543841 Streetview https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9488...8192?entry=ttu

Streetview of sidestreet of home with garage.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9488...8192?entry=ttu



This home went contingent and a continue-to-show as I was going to post. This home being in Norridge as one of 2 twin suburbs surrounded by the city of Chicago as apparently, it could not annex it. It has its own school district etc with schools rate 9 out of 10 it reads.

Finished older 70s finished basement with bar. This is another mid-century home on a corner lot. Wood custom-built cabinets upstairs and full RETRO basement finished with a bar and all done in that 70s 80s darker wood panelling yet works for retro for sure as all nice. Upstairs upgraded with a 2-car garage detached entry off of side street. Concrete and part as a yard without a porch or deck.

This is a corner lot that is along Lawrence Ave which is a main street and the CTA Chicago bus runs along it and just across that street is the city of Chicago.

Built in 1967
1,312 sq/ft without the finished basement.
SELLING Price - $410,000

https://www.redfin.com/IL/Norridge/4.../home/13558525

Streetview of street and front.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9665...8192?entry=ttu

Side streetview showing garage and home.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9665...8192?entry=ttu

[TarHeelNick]

Originally Posted by TarHeelNick

This one in Raleigh just came on the market right down the street from me at exactly $400k...

Curb appeal leaves a lot to be desired.... but decently updated inside, fenced in yard (fence recently rebuilt) and prime/convenient location.

I'd love for them to get $400k for it but think that's a little high; should be closer to the $375ish range.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/9935-Tr.../6564174_zpid/

Closed yesterday at $380k. Would have loved to see the comp at $400k but didn't have my hopes up. Closed right where it should have originally been priced. It did go under contract quicker than I would have thought though...

https://www.zillow.com/homes/9935-Tr.../6564174_zpid/